The purported inevitability of a fifth Scott Dixon Verizon IndyCar Series championship was made to look a little less so on Sunday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Dixon, a 44-time winner and one of the greatest open-wheel drivers of all time, has steadfastly referred to how much was left to do to wrap up the title. This, even after he dominated at Toronto two weeks prior to win his third race of the season and break somewhat free from the pod of his four nearest contenders in the points race.
The pursuers – Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Will Power – were left to speak of managing race weekends and attempting in the final five races to pull within the wider striking range made possible by the double-points opportunity of the season finale at Sonoma Raceway on Sept. 16.
It sounded good, but Dixon has earned his reputation as a relentless, unceasing competitor on the track and seen it mushroom through the retelling – the tales of which legends are made. Oh, and he entered Mid-Ohio this weekend with five prior wins at the 2.258-mile road course. Damn, maybe this was over.
But then Rossi went and proved that, while another Dixon championship may be afoot, it won’t necessarily be as simple as it seemed. On any given weekend, the map to the championship stage can change. The Andretti Autosport driver started from the pole in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio and, once able to hit a prospective fuel number in the opening laps, switched to a two-stop strategy enhanced massively by a caution-free race that allowed him to slowly wallop the field and beat runner-up Robert Wickens by 12.82 seconds.
“It's the best,” Rossi said of having a plan come together so completely. “You just get to kind of get in your rhythm and do what you need to do, do what your team is looking for. That's the race you want to have.
“For me, that's a boring race, and that's the best race you can ever have. Not often you get those in the Verizon IndyCar Series. You take them when you can have them. We'll be prepared to be fighting again come Pocono.”
Dixon finished fifth. Nothing catastrophic, a potentially acceptable yield considering what Rossi accomplished in winning for the second time this season. But less is less and Dixon’s points lead shrank. Rossi advanced from third to second place in the title hunt, 46 points out. Newgarden finished fourth to fall to third in points, 60 points back.
"Basically, a frustrating day," Dixon admitted. "I think the car had some good speed. We were really quick early on in a stint, we kind of faded a little bit.
"We would pit and one of the cars in front of us, or right around us, would pit, too, and we'd fall behind them and it just kind of put us back. It was one of those days where one little, tiny move could have jumped us another two or three spots."
The fifth-place finish certainly doesn’t mean Dixon is suddenly vulnerable. The prerequisite for catching him has simply loosened from perfection to excellence. But he also lost a home game, considering his penchant for dominating at Mid-Ohio.
“For sure, I don't expect him to make a mistake,” Rossi said. “The pressure is on me to deliver the results, to deliver under pressure. I have the team to do that. Yeah, it's all about taking it each day, each lap at a time.”
That was the case on Sunday, as Rossi exploited the maximum-points bonanza of winning the pole, the race and leading the most laps. A quarter of the season essentially remains, including the points bonanza at Sonoma. Dixon has won at two of the four venues ahead at least once (Pocono and Sonoma), Rossi none. But the disparity, after all, was even more against Rossi entering Sunday, as Dixon had won more times at Mid-Ohio than at any other track in his career.
There is time left to cover the gap remaining, said Rossi.
“I think the fact that all I heard about coming into this weekend was how he won five times around here, I mean, yeah, he's excellent at what he does, but you’ve got to capitalize on your good days and his not-so-good days, which unfortunately are slim,” he said. “If we keep running the pace we've had all year, the rest will take care of itself. That's all we're focused on right now. By no means is he going to be easy to beat. By no means do I expect to go to Pocono and win again, him finish fifth.
“We have to keep chipping away at it, improve on the areas we're weak.”
And be ready to capitalize if such an opportunity arises again. That could be as soon as the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono’s 2.5-mile triangular oval. The race airs live at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday, Aug. 19 on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.